Thank you to hundreds of players who tried the alpha version!
Based on the feedback, I identified some common problems in the alpha version:

1. There is a disconnection between the story and the combat because they are separated. It is difficult to follow the story, and the combat does not feel immersive because of this.
   
2. The game seems to have more story/text content rather than the combat. The combat sections feel sparse compared to the amount of text to read in the demo. Being a JRPG, although a lot of reading is to be expected, the pacing of the game feels a little bit awkward due to the issue mentioned above.
   
3. Part of the fun of tactics game is your characters grow stronger after each battle and you can customize their abilities to suit your playstyle. However, this is unachievable because of the roguelike mechanics. There is no sense of character progression in combat because power-ups are reset every session, and there is little control over which power-ups you receive due to RNG.

Moving forward, I would like to address these issues and share what changes to expect in the final demo version planned for release around Q2 2024:

1. The story and combat will be seamlessly integrated, similar to other JRPG games. For those who are not interested in the story can still skip it and access it later through a different menu.
   
2. There will be story battles and free battles. Story battles will use fixed map layouts and enemies tied to the story, while free battles will be procedurally generated, similar to the combat in the alpha version.
   
3. This game will be a turn-based tactics JRPG at its core. Most of the roguelike mechanics will be removed. Upgrades will become permanent, allowing the players to select the upgrades they want instead of pick 1 out of 3 options style.
   
4. The final demo will have 2-4 hours of content (mostly combat related), and save files will carry over to the final game.

Lastly, the current version will be deactivated and no longer available until the next version is ready.
Thank you!

Tune into the Premiere on Nacon's YouTube channel today at 7pm CET to see some Ambulance Life footage, alongside teasers & reveals of other games, from simulators to RPGs!

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We continue to improve the combat skills of our AI-controlled soldiers: with the upcoming update, they will complete their heavy weapons training.



First of all, this improvement will affect the AI AT Gunners in your squad. After the update, if you give them the order to destroy an enemy vehicle, they will use their AT rifles and rocket launchers, aiming at the most vulnerable parts.

Most importantly - don't run into the line of fire: friendly fire is on.



In some situations, battles may involve actual AI commanders with their own squad of soldiers. This can happen, for example, if a player loses connection to the battle.

Such commanders simply have to be useful to the team! So the mortar squads under their leadership will now be trained to use their specialized weapons - mortars. They will independently target zones where they expect to find enemies and begin their massive shelling. Grab a mortar and try to compete with such commanders in efficiency.

Hey there,

Thank you for checking out my little indie game. At this point my development on Chess Survivors is basically complete. But I would like to add one last feature to the game. An actual BOSS FIGHT! I have some ideas but I don’t have any timeline for when this will be ready. I’d love to hear your ideas over in my community discord.

I have begun working on my next game. If you are interesting in learning more about my next game please follow me over on YouTube or hang out with me live on ]Twitch.

Thank you again for supporting solo indie developers like me. My goal is to create games that are fun to play, that respect your time as a player, and that are worth every penny you spent.

Cheers,
Aarimous

• Fixed a bug that didn't allow players to customize colors in Ascent (v1 & v2)
  
• Fixed a minor bug related to fonts on the leaderboards.

Apparently it would seem that running the animated attacking title while doing the initialising in the background may help towards giving an amateur feel to the game. Running it like that did give some stuttering to the animation under certain circumstances, running it in serial would have alleviated it to some extent.
It was there for 2 reasons:
- to mask the background setup
- to emphasise the idea of the game bombarding you with words, e.g. that you were being "attacked" by them.
On the second point, nobody seems to have associated the "attack" part of the name in the way I'd meant for it to be taken.
Therefore, as it has not appeared to address either of the reasons that it existed, I have decided to remove the titles from the game. On starting the game it will now go straight to the help (if still enabled in the settings) or the main menu.

The cave biome is here!! You may have already spotted the exit from the Buggburg Meadows. The entrance can be found...wait, no spoilers! But maybe check somewhere hot and dusty. ;)

Along with the cave, you'll find three new bugs in your codex. AND you can upgrade your Insectarium two more times!! There's lots of new space for displaying your bugs!

Also to note, we are in the process of optimizing things for our Nintendo Switch port, and there's still work to be done. You might notice some pauses when moving between scenes. We will send out another patch as soon as we smooth that out. :)

Enjoy the new content, and thank you so much for playing!

-Chera

Hello, Captains of Fortune!

I'm near the end of development on Career Mode, but it will still take several days to be released.
Obviously, it will come out not without bugs and imbalances; in fact, it is one of the reasons why I preferred to release MOTK in Early Access. However, I am sure that with your help, I can optimize everything as best as possible!

To accommodate those who have not yet purchased MOTK, I would like to say that once the update containing the Career mode is released, the game will increase its value, and its cost will reach 9.99 dollars/euros.
After that, once out of Early Access, MOTK will take its definitive value, which should be at least 12.99 dollars/euros.

Career mode should give much more longevity to the title, in addition to the fact that the most potent weapons in the game will only be usable there, not in Quick Runs.

As you can see, those who chose to trust me by purchasing the game in its initial state received in exchange the purchase of the game at half the final price.
Many games now have their price at EA almost identical to the full release, but I don't find it fair.

If you have any ideas that you would like to see in the game, please write to me, and I will try to include them, commitments permitting.

Hoping to have done what you enjoyed, we will see each other again when the EA 4.0 update is released.


FACE THE HORDE, GRAB THE LOOT, CROSS THE PORTAL.

Hello Awesome People!

The free Steamboat Willie Mickey avatar is here!

Do a silly dance, send a positive message, or invite him to a thoughtful multiplayer avatar roundtable on your vTuber blog hosted with Animaze Rooms so you can talk about the latest Disney entertainment releases.

Whether driven by an actor or an AI brain, by simple webcam face tracking or full body motion capture VMC input, he'll be a great addition, just make sure that, for his visual comfort, you seat him on a cartoon black and white chair.

Look him up by name in the avatar browser (Animaze 2023 DLC, or Animaze live service, Windows PC).
For extra convenience, he also comes with a style-appropriate background in the backgrounds browser.





Before you rush to our Discord to ask for a color version of him with dynamic lighting, please keep in mind that he is meant to stay black and white, to be in line with the Steamboat Willie aesthetic.

This avatar is made available for free, and published from the U.S. where Steamboat Willie Mickey is in the public domain. However, depending on where you are in the world and which local copyright laws apply to you, you might want to do further homework on any legal usage limits.

Cheers, and happy steaming!
The Holotech Team.

Adjustment of voice balance at sanity 0
Minor bug fixes
Fixed some localization issues.